Chap. 404.—An ACT to provide for a special police force in certain coun-
ties, prescribing the manner of their appointment and removal, providing
for their compensation and defining their powers and duties. [H B 88]

Approved March 24, 1922.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Sec. 1. Sheriffs may appoint special police; their pay, etc.; how
allowed and paid—lIn every county of the State having a population
of thirty thousand or more and adjoining one or more cities having
a population of one hundred thousand or more in the aggregate, the
sheriff may, if deemed advisable, appoint a special police force for
so much of said county as is not embraced within an incorporated
town located in such county, to consist of one or more suitable and
discreet persons, who shall serve as such for such length of time as
the said sheriff may designate, or until others are appointed in their
place. Such person or persons so appointed shall be conservators of
the peace in their respective counties. The sheriff may, if deemed
proper, allow compensation to said police, to be approved by the
judge of the circuit court, which, together with any expense incurred
im the execution of their duties, shall be paid out of the county levy.

Sec. 2. May remove any of them and appoint others—tThe sheriff
may, at any time, remove any or all of such police, and appoint others,
and may fill any vacancy that may occur in said police force, or may
add to the number theretofore appointed.

Sec. 3. Removal from county creates vacancy; how filled.—The
removal from the county in which he was appointed, shall vacate
the office of such person so appointed, or he may resign or decline
appointment ; and thereupon the vacancy shall be filled by the sheriff.
Sec. 4. Commonwealth’s attorney to approve; commissioner to
cast deciding vote in case of disagreement.—All appointments of
police made by the sheriff, both original and to fill vacancies, their
removal and the fixing of their compensation, shall be subject to the
approval of the attorney for the Commonwealth, and in the event
the sheriff and the attorney for the Commonwealth cannot agree, a
commissioner, to be appointed annually by the judge of the circuit
court of such county, shall cast the deciding vote.

Sec. 5. Bond of police—Before entering upon the duties of their
office the persons so appointed shall give bond in the penalty of five
hundred dollars with approved security before the county clerk with
condition faithfully to discharge their official duties.

Sec. 6. Their authority, etc., confined to limits of county; what,
evidence of their office.—The jurisdiction and authority of said police
shall extend no further than the limits of the county in which they
are appointed, and a copy of the order of appointment made by the
sheriff, attested by the clerk of such court, shall in all cases be re-
ceived as evidence of their official character.

Sec. 7. Their duties and powers.—It shall be the duty of said
police to apprehend and carry before a justice, to be dealt with accord-
ing to law, all persons whom they may be directed by the warrant
of a justice to apprehend, or whom they have cause to suspect have
violated, or intend to violate any law of the State; and they may
execute any search warrant issued by a justice of their county under
sections forty-eight hundred and nineteen and forty-eight hundred
and twenty of the Code of Virginia. If such property as is mentioned
in said sections be found, the police shall proceed as an officer acting
under chapter one hundred and ninety-one of the Code of Virginia,
and they shall have the same authority as a justice to require any
person to aid in making an arrest.